Samantha Selinger-Morris

Could we, gasp, be entering a new era of prudery? Speak to Abi Crompton about the online erotic store she's putting together, and it seems that way.

The "pleasure toys" are there - some shaped like Japanese cartoon characters - as are the massage oils and Kama Sutra dice. But what she's also got on Love My Love, due to launch this month, is something rarely, if ever, seen in her industry: a coy attitude towards sex.

"The word 'penis' doesn't exist [on the site]," Crompton says. "I hope I never have to say that word again." (The word "willy" is used instead.) Elsewhere on the site, "diletto" has replaced "dildo".

Crompton's far from the only Australian evoking the sort of reserved approach to sex last seen in the 1960s. In April, Cleo magazine eradicated stories about oral sex and orgasms from its cover for the first time since its launch in 1972. And in the same month, the proposed opening of a sex shop in Colac, Victoria, was quashed after members of the community argued it would damage the town's moral code.

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How is it that in a time when the TV show Girls and novel 50 Shades of Grey are among the hottest cultural properties, a creeping conservatism about sex could be spreading?

"What I often think is that we've become uneasy about sexuality because of the kind of overt sexuality in music videos and that kind of thing," Lisa Featherstone, a lecturer in the history of sexuality at the University of Newcastle, says. "I feel that people might be recoiling a little bit from Girls Gone Wild and people's bodies being so much on display. [It's seen now] as a little tasteless."

Also, says Holly Brennan, manager of research and program development at Family Planning Queensland, an intense focus on the dangers of sexting and pornography has led many Australians to lose sight of the fact sex can be a healthy and normal part of everyday life. "We're confronted by images and discussions about sexuality every day, [but] I think that we struggle to place it perhaps as normal, and as just a part of life," Brennan says. "We try and maybe make it more titillating or amusing."

And the focus is on medical aspects of sexual health. "We kind of only hear about breasts when it comes to breast cancer and breastfeeding."

And this, Crompton says, is where Love My Love comes in. She says that rather than being prudish, the website's euphemisms - not to mention its erotic items that double as homewares - help women and couples incorporate their sexuality into everyday life. "What we're really looking at doing is [making] a soft and friendly entrance into the area of love and the erotic, which is kind of a part of a lot of people's daily life, but it's still got that kind of taboo over the top of it."